Pages

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Book #2 update

It's been a few months since I've said anything about When We Were the Kids, so here's an update.

Basically, writing, editing, and revising continues almost every day and this will continue until I feel the book is ready. Some days I can come up with a lot of material to build on what I've been working on for the past five years. Other days I merely tinker, adding and subtracting a few words or sentences here and there. I feel productive, no matter how much or how little I do.

All this time, I have done this on my own volition. No book deal, no deadline, no daily questions from people asking when I'm putting out my next book, nothing. Like with POST, working without a deadline can be a good and bad thing. I don't think I could write a book in six weeks, but I didn't imagine taking four years to finish POST or the five-plus for this one.

Life can get in the way of finishing anything, but I think life's obstacles can help the finished product.

When I started writing this book on playing in bands, I wasn't very active in a band situation. I saw more shows than I played, but I was still out and about, talking to people who played in bands. These days, I play in a very active band and I see shows here and there. I think my weekly exposure to rehearsing, writing, and playing live has greatly helped me write about bands who rehearsed, wrote, and played live regularly. Things I hadn't thought of a few years ago came into my mind in the last two years. That's probably why I've been more productive.

Unlike when I wrote POST, I have not posted any samples of works in progress. Hell, I haven't really said what the book is about, other than a basic premise (a fictional teenage rock band scene 1993-1997, told in an oral history format). I'm not aiming for secrecy here. I merely want to present this book in finished form when it is finished.

What has been a major stumbling block for the last year is assembly. Sure, there are a lot of stories and anecdotes, but the proverbial laces needed to be tightened. If I didn't have some connecting tissue between one story to the next, I'd run into a wall. Sometimes I could come up with stuff on the spot. Other times, it would take hours, days, or weeks, pondering things.

As of today, I'm at the halfway point in the narrative, still adding more than subtracting. I know there will be more subtracting in the final editing stage, but it's been so fun to write thse characters. It will be hard to let go. Maybe that's what taking so long.